


Helping Hands

by Her_Madjesty



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree Assembly, F/M, Gen, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:57:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8918596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Her_Madjesty/pseuds/Her_Madjesty
Summary: “I think I’ll try and put the tree up while you’re out,” Vex said, stirring sugar into her coffee.Vax turned and leaned back against their too-small counter. “It’s not a tree,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “It’s a plastic piece of performance art.”Or: When Vex'ahlia struggles to put up the twins' Christmas tree, she decides to call in a bit of help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I desperately wanted to get a holiday piece up for these two, and I'm glad it seems to have worked out! I'm deeply enjoying this ship, even though I haven't entirely caught up with Critical Role - I suppose the hiatus will be doing me a favor.
> 
> I hope you folks enjoy the fluff, in the meantime! XOXO

The moonlight at three in the morning was less moonlight and more a white haze that spilled through the slots of Vex’ahlia’s blinds. She found herself blinking up at the ceiling, chasing the remnants of a dream only to lose it to the fog. When she pushed herself up onto her elbows for a better view, her blankets slipped away and pooled around her feet. Goosebumps rose across her bare skin; three blankets deep, clothes were no longer required.

Vex rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and squinted out her window towards the thin strip of skyline she could actually see. The white fog, she found, was falling towards the ground – snow. Despite herself, Vex smiled as she clambered out of bed for a better view.  

The whole of the street in front of the apartment complex where she lived was covered with whiteness. Even the streetlamps seemed dimmer, their orange-yellow glow enchanting where it usually burned. The effort it took Vex not to run for her brother immediately was phenomenal; she cradled her hands to her chest, instead, and counted the snowflakes that flattened themselves against her window.

She was still awake when the sun rose. Vax rose from sleep like an angry mule; she could hear his muttering from across the hall. She rose a few moments after she heard his door open, grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of his loose shorts as she went. She waited behind her bedroom door until she heard him trudge into the bathroom.

By the time he emerged, she’d cemented herself in the kitchen next to the coffee pot. She passed him a cup without a word, smiling to herself as he cradled it in his hands.

“Good morning to you, too,” he mumbled. The towel wrapped around his head wobbled as he took a sip; Vex lifted a hand to steady it and watched him with a smile.

“Work again today?” she asked.

“I’m not off until the twenty second,” Vax replied. “And as the boss hasn’t called, I suppose I should head in.” He took another sip of coffee and winced. Steam curled off of the cup and his bottom lip, leaving Vex to turn away and hide her smirk. “Give me a couple more days, Stubby,” Vax said, scowling at his cup, “and then I can make the coffee for you.”

“Hm. Not sure I trust you with that,” Vex admitted. She stepped away from her brother to attend to her own cup, then settled down at the card table in the center of the kitchen. There were paint stains all over the fabric top, some from the twins and others…not. “I think I’ll try and put the tree up while you’re out,” she said.

Vax turned and leaned back against their too-small counter. “It’s not a tree,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “It’s a plastic piece of performance art.”

“And you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Vex said, winking. “Do they have you doing a lot of performance art at the museum? I didn’t know that security guards were part of the exhibits.”

Vax’s disdainful eyebrow crept higher, but Vex saw the corner of his mouth twitch. He set his coffee cup aside and took his hair out of his towel wrap. Vex grinned at him, big and beautiful, then leapt from her chair to dodge a wicked towel whip.

“Hold still, Stubby,” Vax said, rerolling his towel.

“Move faster, brother,” Vex said, laughing.

She grabbed her coffee as Vax pursued. The apartment they shared was small, and there were few places to hide, but the bathroom, at least, had a lock. Vex threw herself over the threshold and slammed the door behind her.

A bit of coffee spilled onto her ratty shirt, and she winced, but it didn’t keep her from giggling as he brother jiggled the doorknob.

“I can pick locks, you know!” he called from the other side. “I’m not going to, because you smell like you should have showered two days ago, but you’re not safe from me!”

“I showered yesterday, thank you muchly,” Vex called back. “Go away! I’ll be out before you leave.”

The doorknob jiggled one last time, then went blessedly still. Vex kept her back pressed against the door until she heard her brother’s move towards the kitchen. She pressed the rim of her coffee cup to her mouth and smiled.

A shower, second cup, and kiss on the cheek later, Vex watched fondly as Vax sailed out of the apartment. He closed the door behind him with a cheeky wave, letting in a quick burst of cold air before disappearing entirely. Vex shook her head and turned her attention back to her coffee pot. It was nearing empty, but that was hardly a problem; they had enough cheap coffee to last them the rest of the month on double pots a day.

The tick of the machine echoed through the apartment. Vex could count her own footsteps as she paced through the kitchen, her ears twitching at every unusual sound. The quiet was an old friend of hers; she was home alone too often, according to Vax, working on commissions for her BumblingBear online shop. She’d turn music on if it got too bad, but most of the time the clicking of her knitting needles or the clattering of her keyboard kept her from fussing too much.

That said, the shop had closed up for the holiday season, and the commissions were all complete. Vex retrieved her laptop out of her bedroom and set it up on the card table alongside a pair of speakers made out of plastic cups. Her favorite web radio station had fallen into the abyss, of late, but there were plenty of places on the internet to go when looking for holiday music.

Vex found a playlist with ease, then swept out of the kitchen in search of the Christmas tree boxes.

The boxes were made out of old, crappy cardboard that had seen more life than either of the twins. They were stuffed in the back of the hall closet, behind an assortment of clothes that neither twin claimed to own. It took her several minutes to wrestle the boxes out of the closet, and a few minutes more to drag both into the too-small living room. Eventually, though, Vex’ahlia managed. She slumped onto the corner of the brown-orange couch, breathing hair and blowing strands of hair out of her face. Her braid had fallen loose in the night, and she’d yet to correct it.

Her playlist was singing something full of jingle bells and cheer off in the kitchen. Vex glared at it, then the boxes, then at the trail of clothes she’d accidently dragged behind her.

Her lips went thin. She glanced at the clock and sighed. It was early, but not abhorrently so; if she sent out a call for help, _someone_ would come for her. She could put up the tree on her own, of course, but it no longer seemed quite as fun as doing it with someone else.

Vex stood up with a huff and moved down the hall, kicking the trails of clothes as she went. She plucked her phone off the charger in her bedroom and started to scroll through her contacts.

Pike Trickfoot was an old friend Vex had met in the emergency room of the local hospital when a car accident had broken her arm. Pike’s gentle nature and proclivity for do-gooding meant that she was probably on shift at the moment, despite the early hour. Even if she wasn’t, Vex had heard her make mention of her grandfather’s rugelach enough to assume that Christmas wasn’t so much her style. Not that Pike wouldn’t help if she asked, but Vex had been _pining_ after Pike’s warm babka ever since she’d been in the hospital, and she wanted to save up any potential holiday requests for later.

She didn’t know what Pike’s friend Gregory – Grog, rather – got up to during the holidays, though if she needed a strong man, Vex knew who to ask after. She’d only texted the guy once or twice, though, and she wasn’t sure she wanted him in her small apartment without Pike’s hand to guide him.

Scanlan Shorthalt was a mutual friend of the three of them, but he worked as a high school choir director. Vex glanced at the time again and frowned; she’d repressed a _lot_ about her years in high school, but she couldn’t forget the early mornings. Scanlan was out.

Vax’s friend Keyleth would help her, though…Vex bit her lip and considered. The last time she’d seen Keyleth, morning sunlight had been sneaking through the apartment’s windows and her brother had been standing in the kitchen, bare chested and making coffee for the both of them. Vex had excused herself before things could get awkward and hid in her room until Vax had come to retrieve her.

Vex shuddered. She liked Keyleth, she really did, but the distinct lack of Vax in the apartment meant nothing but awkwardness if the other girl came over.

Keyleth had a friend, though, that Vex had met while third wheeling one of her and Vax’s dates. His name was too long to fit into her phone, but they’d exchanged numbers about fifteen minutes into the night to better gossip about their moon-eyed companions. They’d run into each other a few times since then – Vex had gone to him with the bike that her car accident had mangled, and he’d recently commissioned a scarf from her for his younger sister.

Vex smiled as she pulled his name up in her contacts. Percival Fredrickstein etc, etc was a curious man. His help could be a little…fun.

If anything, he’d be nice to stare at for a while.

Vex opened up a new message.

<<Vex’ahlia:

Hey! I’m trying to set up my Christmas tree and it’s lonely as balls. Wanna help? >>

She tucked her phone into her back pocket and made her way into the living room. The boxes remained unmoved and her computer had fallen asleep, leaving the apartment quiet once again. Vex kicked the boxes as she walked past and settled herself next to the card table.

After a minute, her phone still hadn’t buzzed.

Vex shook her mouse and scrolled through the remaining songs on the holiday playlist. She bit her lip, then moved on to the ‘suggestions’ bar in search of something better.

After two minutes, her phone was still quiet.

She passed by Michael Bublé, then Mariah Carrey and all of her classics. She hovered over a Disney Christmas album and bit into her bottom lip as the third and fourth minutes ticked on by.  

Vex’ahlia tasted iron. She shot upright and brought a hand to her bottom lip, only to find that it was bleeding.

“Shit!” She threw up her hands and stormed into the bathroom. There was a nervous flutter to her stomach that she worked to ignore as she stared at herself in the mirror. Sure, she and Percival weren’t _great_ friends, but she didn’t think she was overstepping. Maybe he was out of town, though – maybe he was with Cassandra. Vex didn’t know where Percival’s sister lived, but the distance in his eyes when he’d commissioned her scarf spoke to a separation that was old and familiar.

Vex ran a hand over her face and sighed.

By the time she emerged from the bathroom, her computer had gone to sleep again, but the nausea in her stomach had subsided. She took her phone from her pocket and set it face down on one of the couch cushions.

The Christmas tree boxes cowered before her as she marched on towards them. They creaked as she freed them from their twine bindings and let their contents spill out into the world. Vex huffed and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, narrowing her eyes as she stared down her enemy.

She went back to her computer and started the Disney album. Then, she got to work.

The plastic pine needles didn’t quite sting when she put her hand into the mass of them; they bent, soft in a way that real ones weren’t. Vex ignored them in favor of fishing out the tree’s metal base. She set it up in the corner of the living room on a piece of cardboard retrieved from behind the kitchen trashcan. The ‘trunk’ came next: a thick pole covered in fake rings of pine needles that stood about five feet tall. The top of the tree, Vex knew, added another foot of height to the whole thing, but the tree still felt like it shrank every year.

Vex brushed some of the pine needles off of her hands as she stepped back. As she turned to reach into the boxes once more, she heard a knock shake the frame of her front door.

Vex blinked.

The door shook again. Outside, but muffled by the wood, someone swore.

Vex narrowed her eyes. She moved forward with measured steps, careful not to make any noise. Once in front of the door, she squared her shoulders, stood on her toes, and peeked through the foggy peephole.

She landed hard on her heels, a moment later, and threw open the door. “Percy?”

Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III – if she remembered correctly – stood a foot away from Vex’ahlia’s threshold with two cups of coffee in his hands. He appeared lost, if not vaguely amused, but the sight of Vex had his head tilting in concerned confusion.

“Hello,” he said, a beat too late. “I – well – you texted me?”

The cold air whipped through the open door and made Vex shiver. “I did,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. “Did I miss a text back?”

“I –” Percival lifted his hand as though to scratch his neck only to find it full of coffee cup. “Well, no, I guess I didn’t. But I was in the area to do some shopping, and I thought it made sense to…drop by?”

Vex glanced at his hands as he shifted from foot to foot. He must have kicked her door, she decided, instead of knocking; the thought of it made her smile. She leaned past him and saw the broken truck, Diplomacy, down in the apartment’s parking lot; she couldn’t tell if anything was inside, but then again, she didn’t try all that hard.

She looked back and saw that Percival’s ears had gone red. Another gust of cold air made her shiver; in a moment of clarity, she realized that she was braless, and that this had all been a terrible, no good, utterly bad idea.

She focused on the coffee cups in Percival’s hands, instead. “Is one of those for me?” she asked.

Percival nodded, fixing his gaze on a spot, Vex assumed, that was just above her head. She leaned forward again and delighted at his blush as she plucked one of the coffees away from him.

“Starbucks,” she tsked, stepping further inside her apartment. “The only Starbucks around here is in the mall. Have you really fallen so far, Percival?”

The air between them lightened as Percival chuckled. Vex ushered him inside and shut the door behind him, careful to keep her arms crossed over her breasts.

“Cassandra wants a rather specific set of eyeshadow that they seem to have run out of online,” Percival admitted. He stepped into the living room and set his coffee on one of the end tables scattered throughout, then shrugged out of his blue overcoat. It clashed with the orange-brown of the couch cushion it landed on, but neither Vex nor Percival commented. “I figured I might have better luck going to the store itself. I found _something_ , but I’m afraid she’ll still be unhappy with me.”

“Oh, I doubt that, darling,” Vex said, laughing lightly. “You have good taste, Percy, and Cassandra doesn’t strike me as the most scathing of gift receivers.”

“That…may not be the word for her, no,” Percy agreed, if only for the moment. He picked up his coffee cup, brushing one arm against Vex’s own, before turning his attention to the partially assembled tree.

Vex felt her face begin to flush, but she refused to look at him. The opportunity to slip down the hall and put on a bra, at the least, was present, but she hesitated, choosing instead to watch Percy’s eyes as they danced over the room. The apartment living room was so small that even the skeletal tree looked large, but she’d seen the de Rolo household. Percival may well have seen a fake tree before, but Vex doubted there’d ever been one in his home.

“Interesting,” he mused, at last. “It’s simple enough, environmentally friendly, and cost effective in the long run. I may have to convince Cassandra to let us get one of these.”

Vex, halfway to bringing her coffee cup up to her lips, choked.

Percival turned at the first sign of distress, but she waved him away, too busy trying to control her laughter to pay him any mind. His hands hovered around her shoulders, but were otherwise useless. Vex caught sight of his startled stare and felt her laughter double in an instant.

“I’m fine,” she wheezed waving his hands away. “That was – surprisingly complimentary.”

“Was it?” Percy asked. One of his eyebrows flicked upward. “I was…trying to be practical, I suppose.”

“Both work.” Vex straightened up and whisked some spilled coffee off of her shirt. She passed the cup into Percival’s waiting hands, then ran her fingers through her still-damp hair. “I am going to go change,” she said, offering up a smile. “If you want to get a taste for how the tree works, you’re more than welcome to go at it.”

Percival’s eyes flickered between her, the tree, and then her again. If his gaze slipped, Vex gracefully ignored it, but she couldn’t deny the flush that started to creep up her neck.

(If she stuck her chest out a little further, too, well…nobody could prove a thing.)

“How hard can it be?” Percival said, at last.

Vex’ahlia snorted. “If you think it’s so easy,” she said, turning away, “then you can be the one to put the ribbon on, later.”

She glanced over her shoulder in time to see Percival smirk.

By the time she returned from her bedroom, equipped with a bra and a shirt sans coffee stains, the bottom two layers of the tree had been assembled. She kneeled down just beside Percival’s knee and began to fluff the branches he’d left behind. He glanced at her, gaze sharp, but didn’t say a word. When she looked at him, in return, all he did was smile, soft and small.

They work upward together. It’s only when Vex was teetering near the top, her hands covered in pine needles, that she realized the boxes behind her were empty. Percival pushed them off to one side of the living room, then claimed the tree topper for his own.

He held it awkwardly in his hands, glancing between it and Vex with a question written into the curve of his mouth. Vex studied his face for a moment longer than she should have, then smiled in reply.

“Would you like to do the honors?” she asked.

“What? Oh, no.” Percival shook his head, then pressed the topper into Vex’s hands. “I’ll wear myself out working on the ribbon in a moment,” he said, voice dripping sincerity. “But I realize that the top of the tree may be difficult to reach; if you need help –”

Vex took a hurried step away from him, her eyes narrowed. “Excuse me,” she said, crossing her arms. The tree topper’s needles dug into her skin. “Shoo, you,” she said, nodding towards the kitchen. “Pick some better music. I’ll go and get the lights when I’m done.”

“As you wish,” Percival said. He offered her a short, amused bow as he stepped out of the room.

Vex watched him go, tracing the lines of his back through the several layers of clothes he always wore. Only when he’d disappeared out of the room did she turn to face the tree. It was an endeavor – she had to curve her body around the bulk of the branches, though the meager five foot height of the trunk meant she didn’t have to stand on her toes. She bit her lip as she slid the topper into place, then stepped backwards.

An approving huff sounded from behind her. Vex glanced backwards and spotted Percy with her laptop cradled in between his hands.

“It looks good,” he told her.

“Thank you,” Vex said. She looked at her computer with a raised eyebrow and was rewarded with the sight of a flush overtaking Percival’s cheeks.

“The monitor’s gone to sleep,” he said, looking down at his feet. “I need your password if we want better music.”

Vex shook her head and sighed. Percival didn’t quite look at her as she took the computer from his hands, but her fingers brushed against his own, and she saw his blush grow significantly worse.

She tried not to let her own pleasure show as she typed in her password. Hibernation abated, she passed the laptop back over and waltzed out of the living room.

“I’ll get the ornaments,” she called as she moved down the hall. “You get started on the ribbon.”

She heard Percival chuckle and forced herself not to look behind her.

Some acapella nonsense had taken over her living room by the time she returned. She set the box of ornaments down just in front of the couch, then threw herself down onto the cushions with an exaggerated sigh. The buttons of Percival’s coat dug into her back, but she didn’t mind; for a moment, the whole world smelled like smoke and cold air.

Percival blinked between the box and her. After a long moment, he offered her the most tentative of smiles. “Going to make me do all the work, are you?” he asked.

“Not all of it,” Vex said, smiling back. “Ribbon and lights are all yours, though. I want to make sure you have an authentic, broke-person decorating experience.”

Percival snorted, but he didn’t argue.

Vex danced in between the kitchen and the living room while Percival worked. She giggled as he fought with the lights and offered a hand, but he sent her off with a kind word and a disgruntled look. In response, Vex found two clean mugs and busied herself filling them with milk.

By the time Percival had finished with the lights, she had two cups of hot chocolate waiting in the kitchen. She took them into the living room with a wide grin and nudged Percival in the rump with her foot. The small yelp he let out nearly made her spill the drinks, but she caught herself and set them on the nearby end table.

“You do lovely work, darling,” she said, nodding towards the tree. “Just do the ribbon, and this hot chocolate’s yours.”

“Bribery,” Percival tsked. “You’ve sunken so low, dear.”

“Hardly,” Vex said, her laughter exaggerated and posh. “You deserve it for all the hard work you’re doing.”

She thought she saw the man roll his eyes, but she couldn’t say for certain.

They bumped past one another, once the ribbon was done, putting plastic bulbs and oddly-shaped gingerbread men ornaments up on the tree’s bent branches. Percival shrugged out of his outer shirt, halfway through the box, and threw the article onto the couch next to his coat. Vex stared at the thin stretch of stomach that peeked out at her, then forced herself to look away. Her gaze caught, a few minutes later, on the curve of Percival’s wrist as he adjusted the angle of one of the gingerbread men in the tree.

Vex turned her back on him with a huff and bent over to rummage through the ornament box. When she righted herself to move around the tree, it was to find Percival still occupied, but with his ears a little redder than before.

By noon, the boxes in the living were all empty. Percival and Vex had settled on opposite sides of the brown-orange couch and were cradling their rewarmed hot chocolates in their hands, staring proudly at their work. The top of the tree was free of a star or angel, but neither party minded.

“We used to have this horribly little statue Vax made in grade school,” Vex said. Her legs were tucked up against her side, but her bare feet were scant inches away from Percival’s thigh. “Our dad _hated_ it, and frankly, I thought it was possessed for years. We’d sneak around the house and hide it, though, just to see if we could scare him.”

“That’s awful,” Percival teased. His fingers overlapped when he cradled his cup close; Vex allowed herself a two second glance down, then refocused on his face. “I mean, I don’t blame you at all, but _wow_.”

“I know, I know,” Vex said with a laugh. “But after we moved out, Vax started putting it on the top of the tree. I’m not sure what happened to it, but ever since we lost it, we’ve just…forgone a topper.”

“Nothing would be the same,” Percival mused. He took another sip of his hot chocolate and smiled. When he took his cup away, a hint of chocolate remained on his lips. “Cassandra’s the one who manages the decorating, anymore. We don’t have many ornaments left over from our family, but she’s young and fond of harassing me with color. I suspect the more bombastic bulbs will become staples in the next couple of years.”

Vex snorted, careful to cover the top of her chocolate with a hand. She took a sip and stretched out a little further. There was still space left between her and Percy, but as he shifted, too, it shrunk to a little more than an inch. Vex held as still as she could, then set her nearly empty cup aside. Percival, she noticed, wasn’t looking at her; his gaze was fixed on the tree with almost statue-like resolve.

A thought flashed through her head, electric and curious. She didn’t quite shut it down, but she tucked it back into the recesses of her brain.

“What are you doing for the holidays?” she asked, shifting again.

“Hm? Oh, there’s not much planned,” Percival said. He glanced at her, but was just as quick to look away.

Vex’s toes brushed against his thigh.

“Cassandra and I will exchange gifts, of course,” he continued, though his voice went a little higher. “But with it just being the two of us, Christmas will likely be…quiet.”

Vex stretched out a little further and watched Percival’s pale cheeks go red.

“What about you?” he asked, trying desperately to hide the creak of his voice. “Will you visit your father?”

“Ha!” Vex nearly drew away, but only ended up shifting. She stretched out, bringing her second foot to rest next to Percival’s lap. “Vax and I will hang out here, unless some friend says otherwise,” she said. “I’ve got a couple of presents I want to give him, but it won’t be anything elaborate. We always make pancakes, though, so the kitchen’s going to be a mess.”

Percival chuckled. Vex saw him glance down at her lingering feet once, then again. Without looking at her, he moved to stretch, then draped the arm closest to her over her calves.

Vex felt her breath catch in her chest.

“I suppose,” Percival said, hesitant and soft, “that is, if you aren’t opposed – we could spend part of the day together?”

Something warm and bubbly burst to lift in Vex’s chest. She looked back to the tree and traced the string of lights with her eyes, doing her best to hide her smile. “I’m not opposed,” she said. “We have a bunch of old Christmas videos on VHS. You have a player?”

Percival chuckled. Vex glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and was startled by the size of his smile. “I do, actually,” he said. “I bought one not too long ago, just to see if I could play with it a bit. I have no mechanical use for it, so I suppose we can revert to the more conventional.”

His thumb grazed over the curve of Vex’s leg. Vex felt a string of goosebumps rise up on her skin and fought down the butterflies building in her stomach.

“Well, then,” she said, not bothering to fight down her smile. “Looks like we have plans, after all.”

The Christmas tree lights made the living room’s window glow golden. Vex’s face, reflected back at her, seemed to be shining; when she glanced over, it was to find Percival’s matching her own.

“It does, indeed,” he said. “It does, indeed.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
